Health Sciences Literature Review Made Easy: The Matrix Method

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Health Sciences Literature Review Made Easy helps students and practitioners better understand scientific literature by instilling the essential skills (via the matrix method) needed to critically evaluate article findings. The fundamental principles of searching, organizing, reviewing, and synthesizing are covered at the most basic level. Visual examples and a single case study are woven throughout the text. This easy-to-read and practical reference is an invaluable aid to students, researchers, and practitioners.

The Third Edition has been completely revised and updated to reflect the switch out of "paper" mode and into electronic mode. Clinical practice examples and references to PubMed and PubMed Central have been added throughout along with information on reference management softwares such as endnote and refworks.

Preface

p. ix

Acknowledgments

p. xi

Fundamentals of a Literature Review

p. 1

Introduction

p. 3

Review of the Literature

p. 4

Well Beyond Index Cards

p. 5

To Own the Literature

p. 7

Research Synthesis: Historical Perspective

p. 8

The Matrix Method: Definition and Overview

p. 17

Review Matrix: A Versatile Tool

p. 18

Overview of Chapters and Appendices

p. 20

References to Websites

p. 22

Caroline's Quest: Understanding the Process

p. 23

Basic Concepts

p. 29

Source Materials Defined

p. 30

Different Kinds of Source Materials

p. 30

Anatomy of a Scientific Paper---Finding what you need in a Typical Research Paper

p. 36

Guidelines for a Methodological Review of the Literature

p. 42

Caroline's Quest: Learning the Concepts

p. 55

The Matrix Method

p. 59

Paper Trail: How to Plan and Manage a Search of the Literature

p. 61

What Is a Paper Trail?

p. 62

How to Create a Paper Trail

p. 62

How to Find Source Materials: Creating and Using a Paper Trail

p. 65

Tips on Searching for Source Documents

p. 81

Caroline's Quest: Managing the Search

p. 84

Documents Folder: How to Select and Organize Documents for Review

p. 95

How to Select the Documents for your Review

p. 96

What Is a Documents Folder?

p. 97

How to Organize a Documents Folder

p. 99

How to Remember where you put the Documents

p. 99

Caroline's Quest: Assembling a Documents Folder

p. 101

Review Matrix: How to abstract the Research Literature

p. 105

What is a Review Matrix?

p. 106

How to Construct a Review Matrix

p. 107

How to Arrange Documents for use in a Review Matrix

p. 108

How to Choose Column Topics for a Review Matrix

p. 108

How to Abstract Documents in a Review Matrix

p. 113

Fringe Benefits of the Abstracting Process

p. 118

Caroline's Quest: Constructing a Review Matrix

p. 121

Synthesis: How to use a Review Matrix to Write a Synthesis

p. 127

What Is a Synthesis?

p. 128

How to Use a Review Matrix to Write a Synthesis

p. 129

Caroline's Quest: Writing a Synthesis

p. 134

Applications Using the Matrix Method

p. 139

A Library of Lit Review Master Folders

p. 141

What Is a Library of Lit Review Master Folders?

p. 142

How to Create a Library of Lit Review Master Folders

p. 142

How to Use a Library of Lit Review Master Folders

p. 144

Making the Most of the Matrix Method

p. 145

Caroline's Quest: Building her Own Library of Lit Review Master Folders